Walt Disney himself related the story of a chance meeting with Leopold Stokowski at Chasen’s. They agreed to have dinner together. As they talked, Disney told of his plans to do “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” and other possible projects using classical music with animation. Disney said that he was stunned when Stokowski, then one of the two most famous conductors in the country (the other being Arturo Toscanini), responded by saying, “I would like to conduct that for you.” It was an offer he couldn’t pass up.

Famed conductor, Arturo Toscanini, conducting an Italian military band during World War I. As the battle heated up, he moved the band closer and closer to the fight. He wanted the Italian troops to hear the music and boost their courage.

I love Toscanini quotes. A few favorites:

"Wagner was right. Verdi was right. They were both right!”

Known as a slave to the printed score and authenticity, Toscanini was once asked why he re-orchestrated a few passages of a Schumann symphony. His reply: “If it makes the score sound, is good!”

About Richard Strauss, who Toscanini believed had cooperated with the Nazis: “To Strauss, the composer, I take off my hat. To Strauss, the man, I put my hat back on.”

Puccini began work on Turandot in 1920 and had completed all but the final duet between Calaf and the princess when he left for Brussels early in November 1924 for radium treatments for throat cancer. Though he brought his sketches for the final scene with him, he died of cardiac arrest on the 29th, leaving the work unfinished. Using Puccini’s sketches, composer Franco Alfano devised an ending in time for the premiere. Toscanini, however, who was conducting, put down his baton where Puccini’s music ended, saying, “Here the opera ends because at this point the Maestro died.” themorgan.org

83 years ago, Arturo Toscanini, one of the greatest composers of all time, was injured by a group of fascists for refusing to play their anthem Giovinezza.

He was conducting a memorial concert for Italian composer Giuseppe Martucci, at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna. When he was ordered to begin by playing Giovinezza, he refused, even though the fascist foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano was in the audience. Afterwards he was, in his own words, “attacked, injured and repeatedly hit in the face” by a group of blackshirts. Mussolini, incensed by the conductor’s refusal, had his phone tapped, placed him under constant surveillance and confiscated his passport. The passport was returned only after a world outcry over Toscanini’s treatment. On the outbreak of WWII, Toscanini left Italy. He returned seven years later to conduct a concert at the restored La Scala Opera House, which was destroyed during the war… (more)